Former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress president G P Koirala is ‘seriously’ ill and now under treatment in Gangalal Heart Institute here.

Doctors said Koirala’s oxygen intake has drastically reduced following infection in the lungs. “Even after giving in 8 litres of oxygen, his oxygen saturation is below 90,” a doctor said, admitting that the condition is ‘critical’. Under the circumstances, he can not be flown to Singapore for further check-up as planned, hospital sources said.

Koirala was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday morning after he developed breathing problem. As a result, he could not give advice to the central committee members of the party who had assembled at his Maharajgunj residence. Koirala had called the meeting a day prior to his planned departure to Singapore.

A series of political set-backs and the recent humiliation that he suffered in the party circle as a result of his nominating his daughter as the Deputy Prime Minister against the party quota in the coalition government, some think, is directly linked with the sudden deterioration in his health.